Car-brake shoe



(No Model.)

L. S. COLBURN.

GAR BRAKE SHOE.

No. 347,419. Patented Aug. 17, 1886.

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NSEM Nl? L! M1 mn 10H!!! UNITED STATES PATENT OrricE.

LYMAN S'. COLBURN, OF OBERLIN, OHIO.

CAR-BRAKE SHOE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 347,419, dated August 1'7, 1886.

Application filed March 20, 1885. Serial No. 159,524. (No model.)l l

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LYMAN S. GoLBURN, a citizen of the United States, and residing in the village of Oberlin, county of Lorain, and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Friction Brake-Shoes and Brake-Shoe Holders, to be used on the wheels of railroad cars or elsewhere and I do hereby declare the following to be a description of the same, and of the manner of constructing and using the invention in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to-euable any person skilled in the art to which it appertains to construct and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

The object of my invention is to construct and produce a brake-shoe that will be more durable and much more efficient iu bringing railway-cars or other moving bodies requiring a friction-brake to a stop than anything heretofore known or used for that purpose, Without adding much, if any, to the cost of production, and thereby to greatly reduce the danger in railway travel. To attain these objects I take thin boards or veneers of wood about one-eighth of an inch in thickness and corresponding sheets of compressed paper of about the same thickness, and cement or compact them together in alternateor intervening layers into blocks of a suitable thickness to form the face or wearing-surface of the brakeshoe, after which I cut them into the desired shape to fit the wheels or other bodies to which they are to be applied, always being careful and sure to so cut and place them that lthe end grains or growths of the wood layers will be presented to thewheel and form a part of the wearing-surface of said shoe. 'Io more thoroughly protect them and provide against the possibility of the several wood and paper layers becoming separated by moisture, heat, or the extreme pressure to which they are exposed when in use, I place them between two is a detail view representing the brakehead in longitudinal central section. Fig. 3 is a central transverse section of the entire device, and Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the brakehead.

A is the brakehead. Bis the rear portion or back of said head. C are side pieces or cheeks fitted to said back. Said back is provided with ears a, laterally projecting through which the head is secured to the brake-beam by means of bolts fitted in bolt-holes a. Said back has also the rearwardly-projecting lugs a, whose use is hereinafter mentioned. The side pieces or cheeks, O, are fitted, respectively, to the side edges of the brake-head, and are provided with the open mortse c, tting over the ears a. Said cheeks are also provided with the laterally-projecting lugs c. Through said lugs and through lugs ci on back B pass rods C', to bind the oppositely-located cheeks to the brake-head. Said cheeks are also provided with oblong slots c2, and with the oblong guideway c3, formed on the linside faces, respectively, of said cheeks.

D is the brake-shoe, preferably composed of alternate layers of wood and paper, as in that form of the latter called mill-board. Said alternate layers are cemented or compacted together so as to make one solid body, and is preferably used with the layers of Wood end- `wise to the Wheel. Said endwise application of the wood to the wheel affords a much greater durability and efficacy than when the side grain of the wood impinges upon the Wheel. Said shoe has its working-face d scooped or hollowed, thereby causing it to t down closely upon the convex face of the wheel.

.E is a movable or adjusting plate located over the face of the brake-head back and between the two cheeks thereof. Upon said platethe shoe is located. Said plate has trunnions e, adapted to work in guideways c3.

Through the back of the brake-head and from the exterior face of said back pass set- Vscrews e', reaching plate E, and adapted to push said plate forward and away from the back of the head and toward the wheel, as the wear of the shoe demands. Vhen the shoe j is seated on plate E and between cheeks C, it

is tightly clamped between the latter bybolts C, passing through it and also through slots c2, formed in said cheeks. Said binding-bolts, in

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addition to clamping the shoe between the cheeks, also tend to keep the component layers of the shoe from separating or spreading away from cach other. rlhe slots c are made oblong, to permit the tic-bolts that pass through them to move laterally therein, as plate E is moved.

.IIy combined brake-shoe and brake-head thus described has some decided advantages over all ot-hcrs in common use. One of these points of advantage is the simplicity and incxpcnsivcness of the arrangement by which the wear ofthe shoe is taken up. A simple turning of the setscrews that move the plate E after theshoeis loosened between the cheeks answers the ends sought.

Another advantage arises from the pecu liar composition of the shoe. My intermixture of wood and paper lessens the cost of the shoe below that ol' one of iron. Its weight, also, is unich less; also, it is comparatively noiselcss in its impingcment upon the wheel. Neither does it wear the tread of the wheel like metal shoes, and the toughness of thepaper protects the wood from a rapid wear or splitting by the heat caused by friction, as would invariably be the case if used endwise to the wheel and without the intervening paper layers.

I am well aware that a paper brakeshoe has been tested; but the disadvantage of an all-paper shoe is, that when dry it has too much friction on the wheel, .thereby tending to canse the latter to slide on the rail, while in wet weather it becomes slippery and does not hold strong on the wheel.

The advantage of the compound material constituting my improved brake-shoe is, that by reason ofthe wood layers neutralizing the characteristics of the paper layers, the shoe is maintained even and constant in its properties and characteristics both in dry and wet weather. The cost of the shoe is also largely reduced.

In this description and in the following claims I use the expression paper and paper layers7 as signifying paper in its general sense, and thus including compressed paper, mill-board, and all other species of paper. I use the expression thin boards or veneers of wood7 in its general sense, and thus in clude all varieties of wood that might be adapted to this purpose. Neither do I wish to confine myself to any special thickness of either the wood or paper layers, but to use such thicknesses as will produce the best re* suits and greatest economy. N either do I wish to absolutely confine myself to using the wood layers endwise to the wheel.

Having thus fully described my improved brake-shoe and brake head or holder, now` therefore, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A friction brake-shoe composed of thin boards or veneers of wood and corresponding sheets of compressed paper cemented or compacted together in alternate or intervening layers into blocksof asuitable thickness to form the face or wearing-surface of said brake shoe,the wood layers of said shoe having their end grains or growths exposed to the wearing-surface, substantially as described, and for the purposes set forth.

2. A friction brake-shoe composed of a plurality of wood layers and a plurality of paper layers or its equivalent, lo be used on the wheels of railway-cars or elsewhere, as described, and for the purposes set forth.

3. In combination with a friction brakeshoe composed of layers of wood and paper, a sectional brake head or holder having one principal back plate provided with suitable lugs, by means of which it is fastened to the brake-beam, also two side plates or clampingeheeks provided with mortises for the reception and lateral movement of tie-bolts and slotted recesses or guideways on the inner side of said cheeks, also one adjusting-plate having trunnions or guidepins fitted towork in said guideways, all constructed and ar ranged substantially as described, and for the purposes set forth in the foregoing specification.

4. In a sectional brake-shoe holder, the lugs at' on back B, the open mortises c, the lugs c', the oblong slots c", and the oblongl guideways c in checks C, and the trunnions or guide-pins c or their equivalent on adjustingplate E, all arranged substantially as de scribed, and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing to be my invention I have hereunto set my hand this 13th day of March, A. I). 1885.

LYMAN S. COLBURII.

Witnesses:

Gno. B. SoLnnRs, THos. B. HALL.

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